Thursday, September 30, 2010

Dear Stephen Schwartz,

I know you can relate to the plight of loving a story, loving a medium, and trying to convince someone in power to see your vision! You did it with Marc Platt when you convinced him to make it a stage musical. I’m just approaching you with the same sincerity. Is it possible to talk you out of doing a live action movie adaptation? Would you consider doing a traditionally animated adaptation? In my heart I think the musical needs the medium, and I think the medium needs your musical. I just love them both so much and hopefully that shows through in the story reel.

Wow wow wow!!! This is actually INCREDIBLE! This would be absolutely amazing as an animated film! Oh please let this happen! Absolutely fantastic work - it flows so well, I was utterly engrossed in the story. Completely love it.

This is wonderful! Wicked still makes me tear up, especially at this song! (I saw it in NYC when I was 14 with my dad - Idina performed and everything! Truly magical!!)I hope they consider making this, although I last heard Universal had the rights? :(Good luck! :D

Wicked is such an awful play. Do the book. It is so much better. I really do not realize how people can appreciate Wicked the musical. They took out everything that made the book so incredible, and they replace it all with meaningless bullshit.

Heidi, I really regret that I didn't get to see this before Youtube took it down, but it's really exciting to see a kindred spirit in the world of animating musicals (or wanting to). :)

I'm nowhere near Disney, either geographically or professionally, so when I say I would love to get in touch with you, it comes exclusively from a creative and not necessarily profitable standpoint. I can't find any contact information on your blog, but would be totally thrilled if you would shoot me an e-mail (this name at gmail dot com). I'd love to pick your brain, and perhaps see if there's anything I can offer artistically to such a project that might interest you.

You have no idea how excited you have made me. At first I wanted a Live Action version, but after seeing just that little bit, I want a Disney version. This should be Disney's next big project, it would be huge, I'm talking Lion King HUGE!

Oh wow. This is great. I haven't seen 'Wicked' but this looks incredible. If you do get this greenlit, please please PLEASE don't make it another crummy computer-animated 3D flick. Your line art is brilliant enough to not be distorted and overshadowed by computer effects. Keep traditional animation alive!

Can you please re-upload this amazing video?? I can still view it on the blog but you might want to write the ************************************************************************s at NBC because they had it removed from Youtube due to a copyright claim. Love the work so far

When they make this, I just hope it's not TOO much of a kid's movie. Elphaba will HAVE to be the flawed hero she is in the musical. She's just too complex to put in the standard Disney mold. I would aim for PG.

When they make this, I just hope it's not TOO much of a kid's movie. Elphaba will HAVE to be the flawed hero she is in the musical. She's just too complex to put in the standard Disney mold. I would aim for PG.

Yeah, I got some goosebumps there, too. Sadly, I think there's a live-action version of the (vastly inferior, IMHO) book in the works, so that might torpedo chances of a musical. Here's hoping we can have both!

When I saw the musical live this song, and the moment she starts flying is the most emotinal moment in the whole play. Your anamation brought me tears agin. It was so moving. I can't want to see this up on the big screen! :D

I would love it if the movie integrated elements of the book instead of focusing just on the play. Of course the book would have to be watered down a lot to be an appropriate animation for children. I still enjoyed the clip very much!

omg, i never thought that defying gravity would work on screen (its so theatrical!) but there you go. That was amazing. Here's hoping that maybe this happens, not entirely impossible with Universal's new animation studio, and also the fact they immediately pulled this from youtube. Amazing work, Ms Gilbert!

A friend of mine linked to this on Facebook - I think it's brilliant!! Well done :) I love the way you've imagined it. I agree, the possibilities of animation would result in a far superior end-product - there is the danger that it would end up being lame as a live-action film....

Ah, yes, the USAian assumption that if it's animated it must be for children.

This is the same sort of "reasoning" that gets comic shops busted for selling "adult" (clearly marked and with an enforced sales policy) material - because if it's a comic, they must mean to sell it to kids.

Comic books are not just for kids - and neither is animation.

That said, anything animated in this country is not gonna do well if it's not kid-friendly ... because of that self-fulfilling expectation.

I could NOT stop grinning throughout the entire clip. Thank you for making my night wonderful, and I really hope that NBC Universal takes this into consideration (even if they DID take it off youtube...*sigh*).

This was so beautiful!!! it's actually given me chills! What I would give to work on this kinda project :D it would be the job of a lifetime for me!!!! I hope you don't mind but I would love to post the video on my own blog and recommend that everyone comes and checks out your blog to. as i am a fellow animation student. Hope all is going well and keep up the good work

I absolutely loved this. Wicked would make an excellent animated musical and you should have some creative role in it. I personally hope it's a stop motion musical, but I would see a well done movie version, even if it was drawn (decently) in crayon. Excellent.

I have to look and see more of your work. That was an excellent animatic and your sequence would be great in a movie Wicked. Great eye for cinematography.

Hi, You are officially my hero now. I thought about how AMAZING this show would be as an animated film, like, 2 years ago, plotting out this EXACT sequence in my head almost EXACTLY like you've done it here. I cannot begin to express how excited I am that someone in a position to potentially do something about it is thinking the same way as I am. This AWESOME and it MUST HAPPEN.

You are my hero. I had just been telling my friends how every time I listen to music from Wicked, I'm inspired to draw an animatic. I was in the brainstorming stages of one for "The Wizard and I" when I found this link. This is SO amazingly staged - and I'm totally with you, Wicked would be BRILLIANT animated. We can hope and pray. :) Thank you for sharing this!

I think this is exactly what traditional animation needs. It will be a box office smash and restore producers' confidence in traditional hand drawn animation! I also couldn't agree more with you Heidi, this show would be great as a Disney-style animated film.

I hope the suits at Disney are watching the web right now. Cause this is EVERYWHERE!

Amazing! I hope with all my might that Stephen acknowledges your idea! I never wanted a Wicked movie because the stage production is just so wonderful that I didn't want it tainted, but I LOVE the way you've approached it and it would open up a world of possibility for the storyline and staging! Amazing amazing amazing! I want I want I want!

That was epic! I got chill exactly like when i saw it on Broadway the only difference was that i wasn't pinned to my seat by the wall of sound that is my computer speakers. Could you send me the video? It is completely worth watching reapetedly. Send to centralperkinnewyork@hotmail.com

That just outdid everything I saw in "Tangled." I really need to found out more about "Wicked." If the rest of the movie is that good, this could be the real return to animated musicals that we're waiting for.

Wow. Just, wow. This is what we should see when Wicked comes out. I couldn't even stop and talk to my baby- I had to watch all the way through. I saw this on the AV Club, here's hoping that all the right people see it!

This is thrilling! I love Wicked and Disney animation, and the idea of bringing the two together fills me with giddy glee. I hope this video gets to Mr. Schwartz, and I hope he's as moved by your vision as I was.

That was really nice. I saw the show three times and loved it each time. I may have listened to this score more than any other musical and that's saying something... (for me). Honestly I'm not sure they can't do this both in live action and in animation. It's not like that hasn't been done before and I think both mediums would serve the property well.

I never much liked the musical, but your storyboard changed my mind completely. My heart leapt when she grabs the broom and breaks out into the solo.I love classic Disney animation and I would LOVE to see this.

Hi Heidi,As a professional voiceover actor, I of course believe animation to be one of the ultimate, and most effective storytelling mediums. That said, I simply wanted to say: YOU ARE MY NEW HERO. That was an amazing clip! I've been sending the link to everyone I know, and they all agree!

Disney is better when they do their own original animated musicals; doing Wicked might be a disaster. I''d much rather see a live action version of the musical with Idina Menzell reprising her role as Elphaba-if possible-or an animated version made by a Japanese studio (Studio Ghibli, Madhouse, or some other Japanese studio) and written in the same adult manner as the original musical and novel. Disney would just kiddify it and make it mediocre.

Oh my god, I would love to see this. I've seen the stage musical four times, and the animation, even as bare-bones as it is, captured the same heart-stopping feeling of seeing that song live. I'm almost afraid that, whatever they do end up doing for the film, it'll be a letdown after this got my hopes up!

WOW! I'm not even a fan of "Wicked" (loved the book, unimpressed with the play), but that was WONDERFUL! Great staging and blocking, great sense of movement and character. This needs to happen! Great work, and thanks for sharing, no matter what happens!

This is amazing! I hope Stephen Schwartz and the suits at Disney and whoever else needs to be involved have seen this and ARE SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING HOW AMAZING I WOULD BE.honestly. goosebumps. and Iam ALL FOR anything that gives the opportunity to have Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth back in the (THEIR) roles for the movie (as they should be! I simply fear that they have waited to long for a live action version that could include them!)

THIS NEEDS TO BE MADE! so great. awesome work! thinking of story-boarding any of the other songs by any chance?

I love specific songs from Wicked but I'm not a huge fan of it's stage production. However after watching this animation to Defying Gravity (which gave me chills, btw) I am quite certain I would LOVE it in animation form! It is just so perfectly meshed! The rest of the story would fit this so well, too! Wow!

I was thinking the other day: Why not try something like Avatar? Idina Menzel herself suggested. We could have the original cast back to play their roles again! The animation idea is amazing, but I think it just takes away that connection to reality Wicked gave us! I'd love to see Wicked as the fisrt to try Cameron's new way to make movies, and at the same time, being the 1st musical movie ever to be like that!

I don't know the novel, I am familiar with the score, I have never seen the show, and I just watched your video. You win. Nothing has ever made me want to see this story told as much as your video has. Best of luck.

On the Vimeo link someone shared an email address for Stephen Schwartz's office. Perhaps we ought to start an email campaign? It couldn't hurt - maybe the powers that be will listen to a grass-roots movement.

I've watched this about 5 times alone, and made 4 other people watch it. I, like a lot of other people on here, am not a huge fan of Wicked- but I would LOVE to see a movie version if it were animated. The world would be very well represented in an animated feature and I think, more importantly, would have some serious staying power. Not to mention the multi-billion dollar merchandising they would be able to do if the characters were animated. I think Elphaba and Galinda Dolls would be HUGE sellers.

Interesting story: "Wicked" was in fact pitched as an animated film at Disney around 1996. The execs passed on it. (I know the two Disney artists who pitched it.) I think it probably would have been a better Disney animated film than "Atlantis" or "Home On the Range" or "Brother Bear" , what do you think ? Too bad , thinking about what might have been ... and dear old Dis even had Stephen Schwartz working for them in those days. (Pocahontas , Hunchback of Notre Dame).

Really well done. Tiny question thought, there was a tiny portion of your video that had music that wasn't from Wicked. Did it perhaps belong to the song Savages from Disney's Pocahontas? It's been driving me crazy trying to figure out where the little snippet is from.

I have watched this five times now, and it gets better and more goosebump-inducing every time. I'm actually not a huge fan of Wicked, but I *am* a huge fan of traditional animation, and this is conceptually stellar. Keep making awesome things.

Hello! I just discovered your AMAZING WICKED storyboards while google searching news on the WICKED movie! At first I thought it was official!

I actually have thought for years that WICKED would really be an amazing animated feature! I have posted several concept art works for an animated version of the WICKED movie on my DeviantArt account (cor104.deviantart.com) They are kinda old and my art has improved since then but I'd love to get your opinion on them!

My dream...my goal in life is to work in animation in some way. I'd love to get some advice from you!

When I first read your post, I was like 'animated? nooo!!!' but Oh my WORD, I am still filled with chills and glee over that amazing storyboard. I must watch it again! I REALLY hope Mr. Schwartz gets this!! Awesome job!

This is one of those things that just needs to happen. A live action adaptation would be okay, but in order to capture the true majesty of the story and the setting I am in agreement with you, Heidi--it needs to be traditionally animated. This is beautiful work!